I wanted to be free
by KevinBlu
Summary: Living in this monotone habitat always made me wonder what kind of wonderful surprises were waiting for me to discorver them? What kind of thrills and adventures could I live outside this box of glass? I wanted to get out of this prison and see them all! I wanted to be free... but... well, that was before I met him.
1. Boring existence

**It was just a random idea that came to my mind and decided to write it. Not sure if I'm going to continue this or trying to finish the other story… but I really like the plot I've thought for this.**

**Thought, wrote and published in only 2.30 hours! Yay!**

**Happy reading!**

**I wanted to be free:**

**Chapter 1 - Boring existence**

"Light off!" Shouted the night guard of the zoo, as he had been doing since this place opened. Then the bulbs that illuminated the room were turned off and an almost complete darkness embraces us.

Another day had passed with the same monotone routine. We woke up, preened a bit, ate the fish that the aliens provided us, swam for a while to entertain the several young human's offspring that came to visit, ate more fish and went to sleep, waiting for the next morning to do the same again. If boredom was physic place, this place would be it.

My name is Isabelle, and I have lived here all my life. I grew up without parents, the humans found me when I was a chick and they raised me here in the zoo. They became really famous when they brought me here. Apparently, I was the only Emperor Penguin kept in captivity in this nation. Cool, huh?

Since I grew up between them, I've learned a lot about these creatures who call themselves "humans". They are not birds like us, but mammals. Actually, they are closer to leopard or elephant seals than penguins, despite some vague similarities like our way of locomotion and the social organization. They lack of any kind of hair or feathers by nature, but they insist in covering themselves with what they call "clothes", which are made with hair and feathers of other animal species. That's gross.

While my life could be considered easy, it wasn't what I wanted. It's not that I didn't like all the cares that the humans gave to us, it just I wanted more. I needed thrills… and adventure! You know that Emperor are use to walk for long distances and swim during long periods. Here I was confined in this box of crystal with a lot of penguins from different races. There were Adelies, Chinstraps, Magellanics, Blues and some other species. It was hard at first, but we all learned to live together.

That night I had a strange feeling, as if something was going to happen. I didn't know what, but it would be important. I lost track of the time while I was admiring the full moon from the only window in that room. All the other penguins had gone to sleep already, I was the only one awoke. Soon my mind focused in another thing, leaving my absurd premonitions aside.

I felt alone.

I was surrounded by dozens of penguins, yet I felt alone. In my heart, I was alone. Most of the other penguins had formed families, and the humans were supportive toward this. I could swear that they even encouraged us to do so.

But I couldn't, and it wasn't because I didn't want. On the contrary, that was always my dream. Meet a nice guy, sing together, form a family. Nothing extravagant, just that. And with that, I would be happy.

But I couldn't. The males here had all tried to win my heart at some point, but they couldn't. I needed a song. I had one, but I needed another to complement it. They couldn't offer me such song. Some tried, yes, but failed. They didn't understand why I needed a song. They kept saying that songs had nothing to do with love, but they couldn't be more wrong. Our songs are expressions of our very souls; they are part of our spirit. They are the most important thing that an Emperor could ever posses.

Which could be a better demonstration of love than uniting your soul to the one of the other penguin in a beautiful symphony?

I had already given up. I had assumed the sad reality that destiny had chosen for me. I would die alone. I was sad at first, but with time I accepted it and continued with my boring existence.

However, that night brought back those deep buried thought again. Maybe they were related with the odd feeling I was having, but it seemed unlikely.

I decided that the best I could do was heading behind some of the fake rocks on out habitat and rest a bit. I had to perform the next day anyways.

In my dreams, I saw myself been embraced by a handsome tall penguin, and two chicks were jumping and giggling around us. I had a huge smile in my face, as well as him. One of the chicks was slim and had stylized body, so I assumed it was a girl, and coquette as her mother judging by her appearance. The other chick was a bit taller, and had a tougher body, very likely a boy.

Everything seemed perfect in this dream. I smiled mentally at the sight of what I wanted the most, as a mental tear fell from my eyes when I remembered that I would never have it. But suddenly I noticed something odd in this dream. Something that I hadn't seen before.

The male chick had blue eyes.

"_Strange…" _I thought _"…but who cares?" _I was enjoying the image, why would I allow such insignificant detail to ruin the beautiful moment.

Well, It didn't matter since second after I thought that I woke up at the sound of someone calling my name.

"Isabelle!" I opened my eyes and scanned my surrounding, seeking for the source of that voice "Down here, you mountain of feathers!" The voice mocked me in a playfully tone. There was only one penguin there who called me like that. I looked down and finally found who was speaking.

"Morning, Marcos" I greeted the small Chinstrap penguin in front of me "I don't recall sleeping by your side, you know?"

"Well, that's because you didn't!" I sighed. That was the young Marcos, never understanding an indirect.

"I mean that you are supposed to greet a penguin when…"

"No time for that! Follow me, we've got a new penguin here and he's nuts!"

I was still very tired, but my curiosity was stronger than my own body. Besides, the sun had raised already, I wouldn't have slept for very long anyways.

"Ok, lead the way" He nodded and started walking, with me following closely.

The habitats wasn't as big as it seemed from outside. We had barely walked out of the line of rocks the new penguin came into sight. He was a tall emperor penguin with long flippers, big feet and yellow beak. _"Nothing unusual" _I thought, before realizing something. He lacked of our traditional black and white feathers. He didn't even have our golden feathered necklace! All of his body, excepting his feet, was covered with the fluffy infant feathers that you would expect a little chick to have.

But, and call me crazy, those feathers somehow suit him. He also had beautiful blue eyes, like the chick in my dream, only that this penguin's eyes were shiny and a bit mysterious.

He had a lean, muscular body that without a doubt made him a great swimmer. In his chest and flippers he had strange black stained feathers, forming some odd figures and adding more mysterious to that penguin. His fluffy chest looked inviting, actually. I wondered how it would feel being hugged by him, but I quickly dismissed the thought.

_"Really?"_ I asked to myself _"You are really so desperate that you fantasize with someone you just saw and haven't even met?"_ My mental self had a point.

He was shouting incomprehensible things about stealing fishes and killing everyone to the little public that we had that morning. He seemed very sad too. He walked from one side of the habitat to the other, shouting and shouting. Many humans were practically force to flee from there, since they couldn't stand the shouts of that penguin anymore.

"Isn't he a freak!?" Marcos said, laughing and walking away, presumably to meet with other penguins and keep making fun of that Emperor.

"Yeah… a freak…" I whispered to no one in particular, while a smile appeared in my face.

'Freak' wasn't the world I had thought for describing him.

A more suitable adjective for him would be 'interesting'.

Very interesting.

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**And that was chapter 1 of this new fic! (Whose main character is not Mumble O.O)**

**Thanks a lot for reading; it means a lot from me.**

**In case someone didn't understand, the penguin in this story is an Emperor who was in the aquarium of the zoo before Mumble arrived. And in case that someone say that they didn't see one, you are right! There was none in the film, but this is my fic and I say that here there is one! XD**

**Review if you want, and if you are too shy to do so, don't worry! You can always do it some other time.**

**Read you soon ;)**

**KevinBlu**


	2. Alien Territory

**Chapter two is here! **

**I feel refreshed! A new fic, a new profile and a new user's picture! XD**

**I want to clarify something to make this easier to read for you. As you realized, this story is narrated in 1****st**** person, so when the character changes, I'll put his/her name after a line of (- - - - - ) ok?**

**Well, I'll not steal you more of your time!**

**Happy reading ;)**

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**Chapter 2 - Alien territory:**

**(?)**

My head was pounding and my thoughts were a blur. I couldn't even remember how much I'd been sleeping. I could tell that several days, taking into account how hungry and thirsty I was.

I opened my eyes, but I saw nothing but darkness. I tried to stand up straight, but my head hit the roof of wherever I was. Something similar happened when I tried to stretch my flippers. The floor beneath me was cold, like a rock; unlike it, it had no imperfections. It was a smooth and clean surface, and my claws made a curious "click" sound each time they touched it. I assumed it was a creation of the aliens, some sort devise for confinement where I was putted.

"Great… just great" I said to myself "Now how the heck will I speak with the aliens trapped in this… thing!" My whining was answered with a loud metallic chirp that almost hurt my ears. I turned around to see what had caused it, but big was my surprise when I saw that one of the walls of my prison had disappeared. Though I couldn't see anything due to bright light that covered all the outside.

"_Wow, how convenient"_ I thought _"Almost too much to be a coincidence…"_

I walk out warily, scanning everything. As soon as I stepped outside, my feet made contact with the cold white snow again. I couldn't believe how much I missed that soft and freezing sensation. There were walls of rock surrounding me, and a roof above. I was in a cave. I turned around again, just to see that the place where I woke up had disappeared.

"_This gets weirder and weirder"_

I kept walking to the light. I started to hear sounds… no, voices! Penguins talking! I walked a bit more eagerly then. I didn't recognize any of those voices, but I didn't care. At least I knew I was alive!

I reached the entrance of the cave and crossed it. What I found was a collection of different kinds of penguins. I only recognize some of them like Adelies or Chinstraps; others were foreign to my knowledge. There was a small pool on one side, a rock formation in the other, this cave and a little open space. Nice, I guess, but if the aliens weren't here, then there weren't reasons for me to remain there.

I started walking up to one hill, toward the horizon, but when I was reaching the top my head collided with an apparently invisible barrier. It hurt.

I fell on my back, but quickly got up again. What was happening? I walked on another direction and it happened the same, and the same with the other. I jumped into the water and swam as fast as I could, but guess what?

Yeah, another barrier. This time it hurt a lot more, due to the speed I gained underwater.

While I was groaning and rubbing my head with my flippers to ease the pain, a notice two big eyes staring at me from the other side of the invisible wall. And not only that, another one bigger than the first one, its mother most likely, was looking at from behind its offspring.

They were just like that skua had described them: big, ugly with penguin-form beings without feathers or beak in their fat, flabby faces. I was happy and scared at the same time. All my efforts hadn't been in vain!

I immediately darted upward and jumped out of the water. I landed graceless on my belly, but that couldn't be more unimportant. I turned to the barrier, and noticed that there weren't only two, but at least a hundred of aliens staring at us.

"Excuse me, alien sirs! Why are you taking all our fish?" I started to shout "You are kind of killing us all out there!"

Nothing happened… and when I said nothing, I meant it. They didn't move, they didn't look at me, they didn't even seem to had heard me!

I shouted again… and again… and again... and… you got the point.

I shouted a lot, telling them what was happening and demanding a reason. I was sweating and breathing hard, but my efforts were futile. None of them even looked at me. A lot of aliens even walked out of my sight.

I sighed and turned around; maybe I could talk to the other penguins there. They were all gathered behind me, most of them trying to hold their laughter, others staring at me like if I was some kind of freak. Actually, I could swear I heard someone saying something like "Isn't he a freak?"

I realized that maybe when you arrive to a new place, starting to shout, running from side to side and jumping while doing strange signals isn't the best way of introducing yourself to the local population. I blushed so much in embarrassment that my face would be crimson if I hadn't got feathers. Thanks Guin for that.

I wish I had realized before. Now I'm right here, standing nervously with a small crowd in front of me staring with discriminatory eyes.

"_Just like home"_

"Erhm… hello?" I cleaned my throat the best I could. Before embarrassing myself more than I had already done, I'd try to explain my motives "My name is Mumble. I'm a citizen of Emperor-Land, and I have traveled long distances to have an audience with the aliens. Somebody knows what do I have to do to speak with them?" None of them answered. They just kept staring at me with those eyes. It kind of made me remember my days at school, with the difference that in school I had Gloria to talk and play after her lessons.

Suddenly, they started to walk away. They dispersed without even saying 'hello' or ´goodbye´… or even a ´dumb blue-eyed freak´ shout would have been enough to make me knew that they had at least registered my presence!

This place was worse than Emperor-Land

"_I wouldn't be a surprise if they suddenly start throwing rocks at me or something"_ I thought, and actually I was expecting that. Luckily, they just walked away _"Yeah, just like home. Everyone ignoring me, everyone thinking I'm weird, everyone… wait… why is that girl staring at me with that smile?"_

The girl was a young emperor penguin who stood behind some rocks. Despite being a fully grown penguin, I could tell that she about a year younger than me. She had the common white and black feathers and golden ones in the neck and under the cheeks. At first she was staring straight to my eyes, but then her gaze found the roof more interesting.

"_She seems friendly… at least she isn't laughing" _Maybe it was a premature assumption, but since she was the only one there, I decided to try to talk to her.

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**(Isabelle)**

I couldn't believe how rude these penguins were behaving toward him. He was obviously scared and confused, and the only thing those jerks did was laughing at him. How mature!

He turned to us and tried to introduce him, but I couldn't understand what he said, mainly because the snickers of my companions. He stood there, waiting for a response that never came, while all the other penguins just left the place.

Before I knew, everyone had returned to their normal activities except me. I just remained there. I guess I was happy to see another Emperor… I was kind of feeling that I was the only one in the world. In that occasion, I felt so good for being wrong.

I was a bit scared, of course. He was a savage penguin who had never being in captivity, after all. Some are really territorial, I didn't know if he would like the idea of having me around. Not to mention that socializing with other Emperors was an alien territory for me. The last thing I wanted to do was provoking him or something like that.

"_But he doesn't seem dangerous or crazy. Maybe I can talk to him, know him better, interact a bit with my own specie… I kind of need the last one, and I'm not going to learn just sitting here. Apart from Heartsongs, some traditions and some knowledge about our deities, I know nothing about my kind. I don't even remember where do we live in the world out there! Maybe we could sing together too! I sing a little, but I'm not very good. He seems older than me, and therefore more experienced. Perhaps he can be my teacher and give me some classes!"_

The more I thought about the benefits of knowing the penguin, the more eager I was in making him my acquaintance. But there was another motive for my eagerness. That penguin looked alone, forgotten, immerse in his sorrows… it looked like an exiled one. Seeing him so sad was enough to make me sad too.

That penguin seemed like he could really use a friend, and I'm not going to lie, I needed a good friend too. Although I had a good relationship with my neighbors, I wouldn't say that we are all united in friendship. Quite the contrary, but we tolerate each other… well, most of the time.

Then I remembered that I was the only one there apart from him. My gaze had been wandering in the roof, and when it focused again in the visitant, they were met with the straight stare of him.

"_Is he looking at me? No, I don't th… but …yes, he is definitively looking at me… why is he looking at me? Oh, no! I still have that silly smile, don't I? Ok, let's calm down" _I said and took a deep breath _"He probably is quite tired due to the trip, so I'd just leave him rest and I can talk with him tomo… HE IS COMING TOWARD ME! Oh no! Maybe I offended him? Is he mad at me? Quickly, say something intelligent!"_

"Something intelligent!" My mouth spilled before I could realize.

"_For the love of Guin! What the heck is wrong with you, brain!? Useless piece of…"_

"Huh?"

"What I mean is that you aren't very intelligent!"

"_That's your way to say hello and make friends? Remarkable"_

"What?"

"I mean….! I mean…! I mean…!" I couldn't finish my statement.

I think that not even if I wanted to I could screw things up so much. I guess it was a natural talent I had. Very useful, by the way…

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**(?)**

As I was approaching to the girl, her happy smiling face faltered, and a nervous expression replaced it. She glanced to everywhere, like if she was trying to not make eye contact with me again. I could even swear that if I hadn't reached her in that time, she would have run away.

Before I could introduce myself properly, or even say hi, she spoke.

"Something intelligent!" I didn't understand what she meant by that, and I was still surprised because she said that quickly and almost screaming.

The only word I managed to pronounce was a confused "Huh?"

"What I mean is that you aren't very intelligent!" She added quickly, confusing me even more. My eyes widened in shock at the unexpected commentary of the girl, as an involuntary 'what?' left my beak. Was that supposed to be a compliment? Was that a kind of informal way to say hello? Was she insulting me? Was she like the others after all?

The hypothesis of the insult seemed more probably, but when I noticed the mortified expression in the face of the penguin in front of me, not to mention the dark blush that was noticeable even through her feathers, I realized that maybe she had only chosen the wrong words. After all, all the shouts and jumps fitted perfectly in the description of someone 'not very intelligent'

I decided to grant her with the benefit of doubt and let that commentary passed.

An uncomfortable silence fell upon us. I tried to break it several times, but I didn't know what to say. I just opened my beak for a few seconds, then closed it and opened again. It was a bit exasperating, but I simply didn't know what to say after what she said.

"I mean…" She suddenly spoke again. I met her eyes with mine and waited for her to speak.

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**(Isabelle)**

He just stood in front of me, his beak opening and closing several times. Any other penguin would have been very angry and would start shouting or insulting me. I guess it would be the right thing to do; I knew I would do it if someone had treated me as "not very intelligent". This penguin must have very strong principles, because he remained in silence. However, I could sense hints of hurt in his face, and the fact that he didn't dare to look at my eyes assured it.

I couldn't be quiet forever. At least I had to try to fix things a bit.

"I mean…" I paused a second, our eyes met again.

"_Chose your words wisely this time, Isabelle. You'd better not make him feel worst than he already is"_

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**(?)**

"What you did wasn't very intelligent… humans can't hear you from behind the glass" The girl told me.

"_Humans?" _I thought _"Oh, the Aliens! So that's the name of their species. Curious, I was expecting something more… exotic and… hard to pronounce"_

"Yeah…" I replied "I guess it wasn't, but you've got to give me some credit for trying. Sorry if I caused a ruckus" I felt my cheeks' temperature rising.

"Don't worry, we are kind of used to newcomers doing silly stuff" She answered, offering a warm smile.

"But still, I think I was above the usual"

"Let's just say that… it was a quite interesting performance" We shared a short laugh. I guess things were getting better after all "I'm Isabelle, by the way. You've got a name, fuzzball?"

"_Fuzzball?" _

That word.

That single word.

That simple combination of letters and sounds triggered in my mind an incredible succession of memories and events.

Not all of them were nice.

The yells, the insults, the harmful nicknames…

All my painful chickhood came to my mind at once. Not even the image of Gloria could alleviate the pain this time.

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**(Isabelle)**

I just didn't know what when went wrong.

One minute we were talking, and then he stopped suddenly. I could see every inch of his face changing. His smile turned into a frown, his eyes widened, his gaze dropped. I could swear that a tear fell from his face while stared at the floor.

"_I screwed it up" _I thought _"I screwed everything up"_

I didn't understand how, but I knew that my nickname was the responsible. I intended to be friendly, I really did! But I only succeeded in turning the already tense situation worse.

"Don't call me like that…" He responded coldly, emotionless, with hints of fear and sorrow in his voice.

"I didn't mean it as a bad thing" I tried to explain, but my excuse had no effect on him. It's like that say 'Take a snowflake and break it, then say you are sorry all you want, but you won't fix anything'. He spoke again before I could say anything else.

"Never again…"

"I'm sorry"

He didn't look at me. He just turned around again and muttered something about trying again with the humans. He avoided me the rest of the day, and I didn't try to press him anymore.

"_The only potential friend of the same species that I could possibly have in my entire life just came to me to talk and I just insulted him and drove him away when he was scared and vulnerable!" _

I didn't try to stop him. I didn't think he would listen to me anyways. I just watched him creaming at the humans till nightfall, when he went to sleep near the pool, away from us. I felt so bad for him. Near the water the weather is colder than the rest of the room and it was my fault that he was there.

"_But there is still hope for me. He wasn't angry, just sad. Maybe if tomorrow I apologize and try to be more polite with him, I may have another opportunity"_

With those encouraging thoughts in my mind, I went to sleep.

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**Sh-t... 'key, lets star again XD**

**And this was the second chapter of this story! Hope y'all have enjoyed it ^^**

**If you like it, please review and tell me your opinion! If you are too shy to do so, don't worry! You can always review some other time :D**

**Read you soon ;) **

**KevinBlu**


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